There are two (2) fundamental branches of the Sufi Way of importance to Western seekers-of-the-miraculous:

1.     Eastern Sufis, physically, neuro-cognitively conditioned as automata of Islam (Sunni or Shia).

2.     Western Sufis, physically, neuro-cognitively conditioned as automata of Technological Atheism and/or Obsolete Christianity (Catholic or Protestant).

Esoteric Development techniques designed for Islamic Eastern Sufis do not work for Technological Western Sufis.  Without, for instance, an Eastern conditioning that responds organically and emotionally to “holy” chant-words in Arabic or Persian, the Western so-called “Sufi” does not have an organically resonant semantic net in his or her brain, even if he or she tries to inorganically “convert” to Islam and learns to be fluent in Arabic or Persian.  Add to this that these organically non-resonant “Sufis” of the West are embedded in an organic environment that is hostile to Islam and that Eastern Sufis are embedded in an organic environment that is hostile to Western Technological Atheism, the systemic factors operating within the Western Sufi System, within the Eastern Sufi System and within the interface between the two systems as a joint venture, and the future of either system is not viable.  Attempts to transplant the Sufi Way into the non-Islamic West are only breeding aberrations and societal endangerments for the most part in both West and East.  The result:

1.     Western Sufism is unnatural, artificial, and activates the immune system of the Western political and societal greater system.  Western Sufism is treated as a dangerous virus or infection in the West.

2.     Eastern Sufism is natural and organic in the greater Islamic political and social environment in which it is debilitating and dangerous to bring eager Western Sufis into, for they are seen as contaminating elements in the Eastern greater environment, which activates the immune system of the surrounding political and societal environment in the East.

If we are Naqshbandi(s), we have to meditate adequately on the Naqsh, which is the System of higher human evolution on our planet Earth.  To do this, we have to be able to do Real System Thinking, both in the West and the East in conjunction with utilizing other indispensable cognitive functions.  Hence it is required that we learn how Viability works by deeply studying the theories of Viable System Modeling of Stafford Beer and the Immune Response of Organic, Living Systems or Organizations as in the writings of Francisco Varela. In addition to this, every Naqshbandi, Western or Eastern, should study Chaos Theory, Complexity Theory, System Dynamics and Soft System Modeling.  That is how the Naqsh comes to light within genuine human intelligence beyond thoughtless emotional identification with Western or Eastern Sufism.  Yet higher faculties also need to be employed beyond intellect, but not below it.  That I am myself an international management consultant as my profession in mundane life does not make my higher Sufic faculties less productive, but more.  In fact, when raw emotional “Sufis” reject higher development of the True Intellect, it only serves to obstruct the further progress of other evolutionary faculties.

Systemically within the Naqsh (the Total Spiritual System of the Earth Globe), the Western Sufi Way and the Eastern Sufi Way are just two (2) significant components among many in the overall dynamical interactions or causal feedback loops of the Naqsh as a whole.  Higher dimensional System Thinking is indeed a tremendous intellectual and spiritual challenge for both Western and Eastern Sufis alike, but very few of them are willing to hear this!  And why?  Because of physical, intellectual and spiritual laziness rooted in the biological robotics of conditioning, prejudice and psychological identification, all of which maintain utterly stupid assumptions about what constitutes authenticity, authority or competence of any possible Sufi Guide.  Assumptions plug the Ear of the Heart, which is why we see the vast majority of would-be Sufis in both West and East subject to gossip, slander and pretence all around about any figure who becomes temporarily exciting in their circles of superficial seeking, socializing, seducing and rejecting.  Westerners playing these sociologically superficial games in and around Islamic Sufism are like minnows playing with each other within the Jaws of a great whale, which calls itself the “War On Terror”.  The Sufi forums on the Web are thus a presently critical fault or debilitation within the Naqsh that also needs truly extensive System Thinking.  But such an entity is operating on such a low level of intelligence that it has no resident shared faculty of correct self-examination.  The whole thing is just a wasteful side-effect of the presence of a misunderstood entity: the Sufi Way.

Sufi organizations, which also include Gurdjieff organizations, in the world today are incompetent in System Thinking and will remain willfully incompetent to their own detriment.  This is also true in regard to such missing cognitive skills as Scenarios Planning, Goal-Oriented Problem-Solving and Causal Texture Analysis.

          Consider the following Conference of Religions:

Muslim:       “God” is not Allah.  You Christians and Jews, as well as Hindus and Buddhists, have all been conditioned in the wrong religion.

Christian:     “Allah” is a pitiful so-called “God”.  Your stupid religion makes you into murderous fanatics.

Jew:             We have the correct esoteric Name of God.  It is “YahWey”.  We feel sorry for Christians.  Muslims are nothing but mindless suicide bombers clinging to their inferior conditioning.  Hindus are idol-worshipping fools.  Buddhists are against God because they are stupid and have a wrong conditioning.  Technological Atheists are best kept under the control of Israel.

Hindu:         All religions are little parts of the Leela, Game, of All-pervading Vishnu, who has a sky-blue body and wears golden sunshine pants.  You are all lacking a proper education about religion.

Buddhist:     You are all unenlightened.  Only we Buddhists are conditioned into Ultimate Truth beyond your meaningless “Gods”!

Technological Atheist:

                   All you people are into dumb crap that just creates stupid cults.  You are not with the program.  You better adjust!

Try thinking systemically about the causal interactions going on between all six of these mind-choking religious conditionings pronouncing upon one another.  Each stupidity has produced its own local brand of “Self-realization” or the “Way to God”.

The Sufi Way is a kind of occult and spiritual know-how that cannot be simply transplanted like a fruit tree from Eastern to Western soil.  There are system problems there.  Will you look into it all with genuine intelligence plus higher intuition?  Naturally, the false and brainless supposed  “experts on Sufism in the West” and “supposed Authentic Sufi Masters in the East” who you endlessly allow to influence you will no doubt tell you, “Do not listen to that self-appointed Western management consultant ‘False’ Sufi.  He will only distract you with his nonsense that the Naqsh is a ‘Causal Feedback Dynamical System’!  Now that he has been exposed as a Western Management Consultant, which means he cannot possibly be a real Knower of the Divine, you should not need any further warnings from Us!”